The Power of Creativity With Ionut Vlad from Tokinomo: An Artist’s Approach to Disrupt Shopping

Today on The Recursive Podcast we get to find out more about revolutionizing in-store advertising with robots.

Ionut Vlad is the co-founder of Tokinomo, a technology company that uses sensors, motion, light, and sound, to bring shelf products to life and increase shopping engagement. 

No wonder the startup which produces in-store marketing robots has received various awards, like “Impact Star” by Deloitte, and “Most Inventive Startup” by La French Tech Romania.  

With a background in graphic design and fine arts, Ionut honed his craft as an Art Director at Saatchi & Saatchi before launching his own game-changing project.

As Ionut Vlad shares in his conversation with Elena Vrabie, it was his creativity that eventually led him to a tech solution to a marketing problem – how to make products visible and attract shoppers’ limited attention spans in stores. 

“I noticed something quite interesting – my creativity helps a lot because I think the best engineers have this creative approach to things, otherwise they wouldn’t invent stuff. If you are kind of a stickler for the rules, you will always come up with the same stuff. If you’re creative and you’re trying to bypass certain obstacles, then the creative mind comes into play”, Ionut Vlad says.  

In the episode, Elena and Ionut Vlad also discuss: 

• The Psychology Behind Shopping Decision-Making; 
•  Do opposites attract in a co-founding team?  
• Listening to feedback vs. following one’s original ideas to solve problems;
•  How to be a successful founder if you’re an introverted person? 

Curious to learn more innovation stories from the region? Check out our conversation with Lavinia Mehedintu from Offbeat on how to reinvent learning.